Basketball-loving Family

A permeable concrete base under a home court in Beaconsfield

No grate to clear before a game. No low corner that holds a puddle through winter. That's the small, practical detail behind a bigger job: a family in Beaconsfield wanted their backyard basketball court playable the moment the rain stopped, not an hour later.

We poured a permeable concrete base across the yard and laid the court tiles on top. Water finds the joints between tiles, moves through the slab, and drops into the ground underneath. The job needed nothing extra to drain.

Why the base does the draining

A standard court slab is sealed. Rain has to be pushed off with falls, gathered at a grate or pit, and piped somewhere else. Take that system out and put a permeable concrete base in its place: the finished slab holds connected voids running through its whole thickness. Water moves through at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr into a bed of clean screenings, which hold it and release it into the ground below.

Rain goes back into the ground on site rather than down the street drain. After heavy rain, the court has no standing water, no puddle, no reason to wait before the next game.

How the layers sit together

Screenings on the bottom, the permeable concrete slab above them, tiles on top. The tiles carry the game; the slab underneath carries the weight and the water. Once it's poured, there's little for an owner to manage compared with a court that depends on falls and pits staying clear.

Built for the way a family court gets used

Kids treat a home court hard: after-school sessions, weekend matches, a bike or scooter rolling across between games. The strength lives in the slab rather than the tiles sitting on it, and it's the same 25+ mpa mix we pour under car parks. The standard thickness is 125 mm, and at that thickness it gets used for almost every application. The thickness is decided by the application, with larger car parks requiring to be slightly thicker due to the size of the vehicles driving on it. One continuous pour, no joints, and a 10-year structural warranty.

The only real upkeep is a look each month and a sweep once a year. Keep leaves and garden soil off the tiles and the slab underneath keeps draining. It's worth checking whether a permeable concrete base suits your block, on a home court, a driveway or a path. Call us and we'll come out and look.